Broadway to Winchcombe

 

Day 2, and our first full day of walking with 12 miles planned.

We covered  this section of the Cotswolds Way in reverse driving to Winchcombe and then walking Northwards back to Broadway.

Leaving Winchcombe we crossed the main road to climb a track up the side of the hill along Puck Pit Lane. With my deteriorating eye sight I had to look twice to be sure I had read the signpost correctly and wondered if the youth of the village had christened this track with a rather more unpleasant name.

After 2 miles we passed the ruins of Hailes Abbey, founded in the thirteenth century and one of the last Cistercian houses in England.  In the church opposite we admired a fine set of medieval wall paintings.

The route then passed through the tiny community of Wood Stanway before gently falling to the small village of Stanton with its church, Court and Manor House. The latter possesses the tallest gravity fed fountain in Britain, shooting 300 ft high, being fed by a pipe from a reservoir one-and-a-half miles away. The houses here of Cotswolds stone took on a particularly golden hue.

The Manor House at Stanton

Cotswold Stone houses in Stanton village 

The viaduct of the former Gloucestershire and Warwickshire railway was visible to our left. Part of the line has been reopened running trains to Cheltenham racecourse, and on several occasions we heard the mournful whistle of a passing steam train.

The guidebook here remarks how the Cotswolds Way studiously avoids the nearby pub...... but we didn't, feeling that after 7.5 miles we deserved a liquid reward. Suitably refreshed we resumed our walk and were immediately faced with a punishing climb up to the top of Shenberrow Hill, another Iron Age settlement. On a clear day the views would have been superb.

After this the last 4.5 miles to Broadway felt particularly energy sapping.  With one mile to go, both succumbing to fatigue, we stopped for a much needed rest.  Another mile further  on we spotted a signpost indicating a further three-quarters of a mile to go! Morale was now falling fast, but fortunately this was an exaggeration and within 20 minutes we were installed at a cafe in Broadway drinking Gaelic coffee and eating carrot cake. It was a real effort to walk the last 100 yards to the bus stop for the bus back to Winchcombe!